By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
CHESTERFIELD — Sunday was the last day the members of Chesterfield Baptist Church worshiped in the building’s sanctuary for a few months, as the church has just begun an expansion and restoration project.
The church will expand its sanctuary to hold an additional 60 members, refurbish the exterior to be more in line with its historical roots, and undergo a number of other changes.
“I think the project has both an inward and an outward focus,” said the Rev. Ed DeSilva, pastor at the church.
“We want to be able to serve our own expanding church family more effectively.
“But also we are a church that wants to create a more effective presence in our own community, and if we’re not able to accommodate the members of our community we can’t do that very well.”
He said the money for the project came mostly from congregants’ donations, which started with a four-week in-house fundraising initiative, but declined to specify how much was raised.
Funds also came through a grant from The Crosswicks Foundation. The grant is dependent on restoring some of the historical nature of the building, which dates from the mid-1800s, and the project will include removing aluminum siding from the building and replacing it with imitation wood.
The church has just under 200 members, the Rev. DeSilva said, with 100 to 125 showing up regularly and many more on holidays. On Christmas and Easter, for instance, some members have to sit on folding chairs in the aisles or in the back of the church.
But he said while that has managed to work so far, crowding the church tends to lessen attendance. New housing in the township will also help the congregation grow, he added.
While one option was to hold multiple services, the Rev. DeSilva said that was not ideal for the church.
“We talked about multiple services, but our church has a real sense of community, of family, and we felt if we moved in multiple services we’d fracture that,” he said.
Brown and Glynn, a Northern Jersey construction company in charge of the project, has given an estimate of eight weeks for the project, the Rev. DeSilva said. In the meantime, the congregation will meet in the fellowship hall, an attached building.
Construction began earlier this week. The project will also lengthen the interior balcony, add a few small rooms inside, and expand parking.

